Grassroots Fund Raising Experience
Back to Grassroots Fund Raising in North America Home __TOC__ Experiences with Fund Raising Efforts at Universities and Colleges Can people put up the results of their efforts in fundraising at their universities / companies / communities, with descriptions of what exactly your set up was, and how much money you collected in how much time? Do you have any advice on what to do, what not to do, what you think might work but haven't had the opportunity to try? This can really help other people, and also give motivation to everyone in terms of "hey, if students at the Univ of Miami can collect $2000 in 2 days, so can we!". So start writing your fund raising stories here NOW! If there are too many stories to write about, we can move it onto its own separate page later. (Jahanzeb Sherwani) :Mills College, Oakland, CA is a small private women's college. I happen to be the only (ethnic) Pakistani here so keeping all of this in mind, fund raising here is a different experience. Even then I would say, I have received a positive response by far. We started our relief effort yesterday and in one day many people have contacted me. I contacted various student organizations to collaborate and help in relief efforts. We made donation (in kind) boxes and placed them in all the buildings on campus which include academic spaces, social spaces and residence halls. We have also placed donation (in cash) jars in places where cash flow is common such as stores and cafes on campus. I have also sent out emails to all students and professors to donate money. People have talked about giving money in cheque personally to me too. As I will get more update I will report it here. In the meantime I am trying to coordinate with other colleges in the bay area. The South Asian studies department in UC Berkeley has started a relief effort and they have named various organizations where students can donate. I will try and contact their Pakistani Student Association and Muslim Students Association as well. Oh and we are also holding a fund raiser event where there will be student performances, food and a musical night. The proceedings of this event will go to the victims. (Fiza Asar) :McGill University, Montreal, Canada - Ok so this whole thing is being run by the Pakistan Student Association (the student society of McGill is also helping by accepting non-monetary donations at their office) :-we had about 3 large posters with photos of the disaster :-collection boxes (5 or 6) :-lots of little green ribbons that we gave to anyone who wanted one :-little photocopied info pamphlets about the disaster and the PSA website and contacts for accountability :-shouting and asking people to donate in one-on-one and also group interactions as these people were getting their lunch at the caf, going to class, entering the library, or going home from class/lunch/library.. :so basically we had about 7-8 people volunteering at a time... everyone had their own building/floor where there is a lot of student/teacher traffic, and just approached people one by one to donate... once there is a bit of awareness and people know it's gonna last for a week or whatever, people might actually come with prepared envelopes with cash! (one lady came with an envelope of $50 and a huge ziploc bag of coins... - some of them were 5 rupee coins!) :Sami's (PSA volunteer) Fundraising Tips: :1) hold the box in your hand in front of you, that way it is personal and they are giving money to YOU, not just some box on some table.. :2)be polite and say "thank you" whether they give or not :3)don't get discouraged!! people WILL walk by you and pretend you do not exist! try not to take it personally... which is easy because half the time you are thinking about all the thousands that have died and the millions suffering, and someone isnt giving up a quarter for them... relax... just shout and sell as loud as you can and eventually they will come back... trust me... :and in the past week PSA has raised about $10,000!! which, according to The Citizen's Foundation NGO in Pakistan, is enough to rebuild two full homes for two families that desperately need them. THAT'S motivation. :Florida International University, Miami, Florida - FIU is a huge public university consisting of 36,000 people in the Miami. On behalf of the Pakistan Students' Association at FIU, several friends and I managed to get a table Monday morning in the middle of the main hallway at the university. Starting with several people, at the end of the day we had over 25 people people working for the cause raising upto 900 dollars on Monday alone. Tuesday brought forth 1400 dollars and Wednesday and Thursday combined gave us a figure of over 1500 dollars. :What we did.. :- Set up a table at the main hallway. A place where people hang out or walk through. :- We put three donation boxes on the table. :- We put up four posters with pictures and hardcore facts about the earthqauke. :- Our main goal was to spread awareness. We would go upto random people and jolt out these disturbing facts. Even if this approach doesnt result in money, the fact that the person is aware of the tragedy still means a lot. :- Our typical approach "excuse me sir have you heard about the recent earthquake in South Asia, 40 thousand dead, sixty thousand wounded, 2.5 million homeless" :- Representatives of the club spread throughout the university with this "speading the awareness" attitude. This resulted in a great amount of donations and a great amount of interest. :- A lot of people might have been indifferent about our fund raiser, but a great amount of people actually enjoyed talking to us. With the exception of several cases, we recieved postive attitudes from most of the people. :- Another useful thing we did was that we went to the offices of many professors and asked them for personal donations. This personal approach is a much more formal one and they donated a great amount of money for our cause. :This was just a general overview of what we did and how we did it. We have raised over 3500 dollars so far. We hope to continue raising funds all of next week and gather as much money as we can. Experiences with Fund Raising Efforts at Companies See: * Earthquake 10-05 Corporate Matches